Doherty Reflects on Strong Regular Season

By Michael Renahan, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - At the end of each season, head coaches sit down and
reflect. They think of the ups and downs. They think of the wins, the losses,
the growth of their team and the growth of their players. Whether the team is
preparing for the postseason or not, the coach will still reflect on the
regular season that was.

It is not hard to see what coach Missy Doherty thinks of her team as she
reflects. You can hear it in her voice; you can see it in her eyes. She's
proud. She looks up and down this roster and can't help but feel proud of her
players. At one point this season, she didn't have a set starting goalkeeper.
Now she has an established, effective goalkeeper for years to come. At one
point, her team was too young and too inexperienced, now they all play like fifth-year
seniors.

"I think they're a bunch of fighters," Doherty said. "They're competitors. I
think competiveness sometimes has trumped our inexperience. They're in there to
compete and they've continued to get better and learn and learn, but regardless
of that they're going to come out and compete. Thankfully, at the beginning of
the season, you never know how much you're going to be adversely affected by
the lack of experience, but the fact that we have such competitors on the team
has pushed us through some situations where the other team might be older or
more mature than we were. But overall, it's been a fantastic season, pulling
out some big wins against huge teams and we're just really excited about
postseason."

Doherty has seen her young players like Jenna Mosketti, Maggie McCormick
and Kelly Lechner become phenoms for the program. At the same time, she has seen
her veteran players like Molly Fernandez and Mackenzie Cyr continue their
stellar careers.

Individually, the Nittany Lions were recognized numerous times throughout
the 2013 season. Mosketti was named ALC rookie of the week four times. Defender
Colleen Shea was named ALC defensive player of the week. Tatum Coffey was named
WomensLax.com co-player of the week. All in all, five Penn State players were
honored with individual awards.

It took some time to get going in 2013. The team started 4-3 and was still
getting into their groove. They struggled to find their footing defensively and
the offense still lacked synergy. They had setbacks against some of the best
teams in the country, like Maryland and Loyola. The Nittany Lions had a long
way to go in 2013, but they met each challenge and never once backed down.

"Sometimes when players come in they bring their own confidence and we have
a lot of young players that are confident in themselves," said Doherty. "It's
easier to coach them when they bring their own confidence than then it is when
they're always questioning themselves. Thankfully, a lot of our young players
have brought in their own confidence and belief in themselves and we've been
able to move them forward coaching wise to guide them down the right paths."

As the season progressed, they took down teams like Virginia, Florida, Ohio
State and Johns Hopkins. Never once did they not seem prepared for the
challenge or ready to take it on with a full head of steam. They raised their
practice tempo and intensity, as well as their game speed and tenacity. They
started dominating teams at home, never once losing.

An offense that was still working out some kinks early in the season has long
been forgotten. They were scoring, and scoring a lot. They out-ran and
out-worked each of their opponents. It's no surprise Doherty is proud of this
team.

"I'm super proud. I think a goal of a coach is to be able to witness the
team really experience some firsts and really experiencing being the best and
to be able to sit back and watch them come up with big plays and achieve
awesome things, that's the fun part about being a coach," Doherty said.

In February of this year, the leadership of the Nittany Lions was in
question. With only three seniors on the roster and a core of freshman and
sophomore players, the team was expected to lack leadership.

They proved that expectation wrong. All of the younger players, along with the
older players, played crucial leadership roles and stepped up to fill the void.
They worked out problems on the field and adjusted to the way teams played
them. Whether it is a senior to a freshman, or a freshman to a senior, each
Nittany Lion communicated on the field, and communicated loudly.

"Just to know that this team is going to grow up together is an exciting
team. It's not a thing where our team is going to change much for the next two
years, really," Doherty said. "That's our challenge as coaches, we're really
happy with how we've done but how can we get so and so better? How can we get
better for low-D? We don't want to be the same team this year next year and
that's why I love coaching this team, because everyone is really good and it is
a challenge to figure out how we can make things better, because they do things
really well."

"We're continuing to grow form the leadership side, were continuing to grow
kind of as a unit," said Doherty. "Thankfully, we have some great players that
individually come up with big plays at big times, but going into post season
you really have to have that complete team effort to talk it up and work
together. That's continuing to grow and I think as our team gets older that
will be easier to do."

The 11-5 record marks the best season under Doherty in her three years in
Happy Valley. As a team, they out-scored
opponents by 36 goals. Nine players scored ten goals or more for the Nittany
Lions, while six players created ten turnovers or more. Penn State was paced by
Maggie McCormick, who finished with 72 points after scoring 40 goals and
assisting on 32 others. On the other end of the field, Katie Guy led the Nittany
Lions with 30 created turnovers.

What were weaknesses had become strengths. They have a steady goalkeeper in
net. They have a solid offensive unit. They have a defense that works
incredibly hard, and of course, they have youth. They use their speed and will-power
to beat you. They won games that came down to the wire, as well as blowouts.
They've won outdoors and inside, on the road and at home.

The Nittany Lions earned a share of the American Lacrosse Conference title.
They now enter the conference tournament as a No. 3 seed behind Northwestern
and Florida. Their first game is on May 2 against Vanderbilt, who they beat
20-14 earlier this season.